Just two days after enjoying the second day of Comiket

Ibaragi Prefectural Police's Toride Station announced on August 13 that 34-year-old manga artist Jun Sadogawa (autonym: Mutsumi Kawato) was found dead hanging on a tree in the Tone Shinsui Park in Tone-cho, Ibaragi, at around 5 a.m. on the day. A 60-year-old man who walked by the park found him and called the police. According to the police, he hanged himself with a rope from the tree and passed away before dawn. His identity was verified a driver's license. The police also found his car in the park's parking lot. No suicide note was found in his belongings. Tone-cho was Sadogawa's hometown. From the circumstances, the police suspects he committed suicide.

Sadogawa made his debut as a professional manga artist with Muteki Kanban Musume/Ramen Fighter Miki in 2000. The manga and its sequel were serialized in Akita Shoten's Weekly Shonen Champion from 2002 to 2007 and 22 tankobon volumes were published in total. By the great popularity, 24-episodes TV anime adaptation of the manga was produced by Telecom Animation and aired in 2007. He was currently serializing his latest manga series Amane Atatameru in Weekly Shonen Champion and so far two tankobon volumes have been published in Japan.

According to his latest tweets, he went to the second day of Comic Market/Comiket on August 11, just two days before his suicide. Apparently there were nothing to suggest his last decision in the tweets. He reported that he enjoyed one of the few occasions to meet so many fellow manga artists very much. Some fans believe that he went to Comiket because he wanted to say his last goodbye to his manga friends. Akita Shoten announced today that Sadogawa had already completed two more episodes for Amane Atatameru. Following his family's wish, they will published the episodes serially in the magazine.